Inanna

Goddess of love, war and the planet Venus; queen of heaven.

Parentage

• parent: Nanna

Children

• Shara

Domains

• love sexuality
• war
• venus star

Powers

• Holding the divine decrees of civilization
• Descending to and returning from the underworld
• Turning combat into festival and overthrowing mountains

Epithets

• šarrat šamê akkadian · sharrat shame · cultQueen of heaven; Inanna-Ishtar's supreme celestial titleSumerian Inanna hymns (Enheduanna); Ishtar prayers (primary)
• nin-an-na akkadian · Ninanna · cultLady of heaven (the very name Inanna); the Venus-goddess of the skyInanna and the temple-cult hymns; Descent of Inanna (primary)
• Nin-me-šar-ra akkadian · Ninmeshara · hymnicLady of all the divine powers (me); from Enheduanna's great hymnEnheduanna, Nin-me-šara (The Exaltation of Inanna) (primary)
• bēlet tāḫāzi akkadian · belet tahazi · hymnicLady of battle; Ishtar as the fierce goddess of warfareIshtar war-hymns; the Agushaya Hymn (primary)
• Dilbat akkadian · Dilbat · literaryThe (planet) Venus; Ishtar as the morning and evening starastronomical texts (MUL.APIN); cf. the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa (secondary)
• Anunītu akkadian · Anunitu · cultThe martial Ishtar of Akkad; a distinct warlike astral aspectOld Akkadian/Babylonian cult texts; royal inscriptions of Akkad (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: EreshkigalFull sibling — shares the same attested parentage (Nanna) per the figures' cited genealogy.
• sibling: UtuFull sibling — shares the same attested parentage (Nanna) per the figures' cited genealogy.
• interpretatio: PinikirReciprocal of elamite_pinikir.interpretatio — In the Hattusa babilili-ritual the Elamite astral goddess Pinikir/Pirinkir is written dIŠTAR and treated as an Ishtar-type. Preserves the Venus 'Commander of Heaven'; her Elamite consort-ties drop away.Hittite babilili-ritual, CTH 718 (Pirinkir written with the IŠTAR logogram) (primary); G. Beckman, The babilili-Ritual from Hattusa (2014) (secondary)
• equated with: ShaushkaReciprocal of hurrian_shaushka.equated-with — Shaushka is written dIŠTAR in Hittite-Hurrian texts and holds Ishtar of Nineveh's cult. Preserves the love-war-Venus complex, ambiguous gender included; Shaushka adds healing and her two handmaidens.G. Wilhelm, The Hurrians (1989) (secondary)
• equated with: AstarteReciprocal of phoenician_astarte.equated-with — ʿAštart and Ištar descend from common Semitic *ʿAṯtar-, sharing the love-war-Venus complex. Cognate development, not borrowing: each goddess's cult, consorts, and myths evolved independently.DDD (2nd ed. 1999), s.v. 'Astarte' (secondary)
• lover: DumuziReciprocal of mesopotamian_dumuzi.lover — Shepherd-god, the dying-rising consort of Inanna, whom she consigns to the netherworld as her ransom.Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld (ETCSL 1.4.1), lines 285-410 (Inanna gives Dumuzi as her substitute to the underworld) (primary)

Sources

• existence: Inana's Descent to the Nether World (primary)